


Fizzle but a little

by PlushPanda



Category: Terminator (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Major Spoilers, pain what pain, sharing body heat trope, traumatized dumbasses in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 23:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21465928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlushPanda/pseuds/PlushPanda
Summary: After everything is said and done, it’s time for Dani to protect Grace.From the cold.
Relationships: Grace/Dani Ramos
Comments: 17
Kudos: 355





	Fizzle but a little

_click click click_

Dani was wide awake, staring up at the old, dented roof of the car. Even though they had successfully defeated the rev-9, and should therefore be safe for the time being, sleep eluded her. They had parked a ways off the road, in the wilderness, because the surrounding area was full of cops investigating the incident at the dam. Walking into an inn, haggard and smelling of smoke, would’ve surely raised alarms.

So they had settled in the car, seats thrown back so they had a semblance of a bed, and Dani was awake. The past few days felt like years and it had wrought her out until she couldn’t even bring it up to feel anything anymore. She was just... alive.

_click click click_

And annoyed by that clicking. It sounded like someone was nervously tapping on the window, but it was too dull, too muted.

_click click click_

She turned her head to the source of the sound, eyes flitting across the blanket draped over a familiar body in the back seat until they settled on a mop of dirty blonde hair. The clicking stopped at her slight movement, and it took a moment for Dani to realize the clicking came from Grace. Instantly, she was worried her auxiliary power source was malfunctioning.

Removing her primary power source had been very traumatic, and Dani honestly thought Grace had died, but no sooner had she wondered why her future self couldn’t give her TWO power sources did Grace come to life with an anticlimactic blink of the eyes.

“Hey, are you okay?” Dani’s voice was but a whisper to avoid waking Sarah. Grace remained quiet, unmoving, and Dani’s quiet heart started beating in her throat. She reached over quick enough to mask the trembling in her hand and pulled the blanket down from Grace’s face.

Clear blue eyes snapped open, momentarily brimming with intensity as they scanned the environment, before they dimmed and relaxed, focusing on a point below Dani’s eyes. “What?” she asked plainly, voice gritty.

Dani breathed a sigh of relief. “I heard a noise,” she whispered, letting go of Grace’s blanket and slipping her hand up to rest on the side of her face, just to assure herself she was still there. Grace’s jaw was taut with tension and her skin was clammy underneath her touch. “You’re cold.” She shifted her hand to her forehead, ruffling short blonde hair. “Really cold,” she confirmed, frowning.

Grace barely had the time to react before Dani had opened the door and jumped out of the car. She was quiet and efficient as she closed the door behind her and all but threw the back door open to get to Grace. She stepped onto the protruding edge, leaning over Grace upside down. In the cramped space of the backseat, there was barely any space between them, but that was exactly what she was after. Her hands flitted across her face, neck, and shoulders, looking for wounds that weren’t there.

Grace scrunched her nose at the attention, but quickly softened when she saw the genuine fear in Dani’s eyes. “I’m fine, Dani.” She paused, remembering the hole in her side. It had been tended to, but it probably would’ve hurt a lot if she didn’t have her regular shot of medical grade painkillers. “Just... tired.”

Dani lost her frantic edge, but stared straight into Grace’s eyes with an intensity that made even the augmented super soldier squirm. “Then why were you clattering your teeth?”

“I’m cold,” she admitted, surprising Dani with her honesty. “There’s only enough power for the critical augments to run.”

Her eyes flitted down to focus on Dani’s mouth when she was about to answer. Grace did that a lot, Dani realized, ever since they destroyed rev-9. And on top of that, she hadn’t reacted to her until she’d touched her. “You had hearing augments?” she concluded quietly.

Grace narrowed an eye, looking at Dani funny. “I said I’m cold, not deaf.”

Now it was Dani’s turn to narrow her eyes, albeit in suspicion. She covered her mouth with her hand. “Are you deaf?” she asked in the same hushed tone they were talking in.

Miraculously, Sarah was still sleeping behind the wheel.

Grace stared her down for a second too long, then averted her eyes and sighed in exasperation, though there was no real bite to it. Dani felt affection, even. “Yes, I have hearing augments.”

Dani dropped her hand, nodding. “Okay,” she mumbled, glancing at the thin blanket Grace was using. “Move over,” she ordered, flipping her seat forwards and closing the door behind her.

Grace was making room for an extra body before the words had fully registered. When they did, she watched, somewhat incredulously, as Dani wormed her way in next to her on the back seat. The look of concentration on her face told Grace there was no room for argument, so she remained silent and held up her blanket as Dani settled against her front.

Dani slotted herself against Grace’s body with remarkable ease. Grace offered her arm to rest her head on, and when Dani aimed to tangle their legs, Grace took the initiative and slid a leg in between Dani’s. The action straightened her hips in a comfortable manner.

It was suspiciously comfortable, Dani thought. She treaded dangerously close to wondering what they were to each other in the future, but she was just too exhausted to even attempt to guess. Instead, she pressed her face close to Grace’s collar, breathing deeply in the hopes of warming her more efficiently. Her very bones felt cool underneath a layer of warm flesh, and Dani made a mental note to get her something warmer than the tank top she favored.

“I won’t live long,” Grace said, staring at the passenger seat over Dani’s head, unseeing. “Whether it’s the meds, the augments or Legion.”

Dani grasped at Grace’s flimsy top, holding on like it would stop her from slipping through her fingers. A rush of fresh hurt piled on top of the old, and it stung so bad, she went straight past mourning and right into anger.

“You shut your mouth,” she hissed, slipping from underneath Grace’s chin so she could read. her. lips. “Then we’ll find someone to take out the augments and we’ll prepare for the future, but for now, so help me God, you are here and you will cut it with this fatalistic bullshit.”

Against her expectations, Grace’s face melted into a crooked smile. Her eyes were, predictably, trained on her mouth, but it didn’t feel like she was watching her out of practical reasons when she whispered an endeared, “Yes, ma’am.”

Dani’s anger sizzled in the face of her easy smile, and for a rare moment, she felt fine. Her core warmed underneath the heavy gaze. She wasn’t sure whether it was weakness or strength that lead her to push forward and press a kiss to Grace’s smiling mouth. She just knew she had to. 

Grace adjusted quickly, thoughtlessly, to return the kiss, and it was soft and tender and exactly what Dani needed from her. Grace was hard underneath her hands and soft against her mouth. It was liquid temptation and Dani drank deeper and deeper. The sound of their lips sliding together was like music to her ears, Grace’s solid presence a balm to her aching heart.

“You two better not be fucking back there,” Sarah grumbled dryly.

It was like a bucket of cold water.

Dani tore herself away. “And what if we were?” she asked, more annoyed than she thought she’d be. She caught the tail end of a dopey look on Grace, and, once again, her spite did the thing where it fizzled.

“I saw a nice cave a couple miles back. Maybe try that.”

It fizzled but a little.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, i have no clue how Grace functions and my headcanons change every five seconds.


End file.
